Soulmates
by V. Sourweather
Summary: Soulmate!AU. Daphne wants her sister to fight for her soulmate - because she never did. [Warning: Character death and a lot of angstiness]


**Hello everyone! This is my first try at writing for the Daphne / Harry pairing, and I hope you will like it!**

**It's a soulmate!AU, in which the name of your soulmate appears on your wrist when you're eighteen, and when you kiss him / her, there is a bond created between you and your soulmate - a bond that allows you to feel his / her strong emotions.**

**Summary: Daphne wants her sister to fight for her soulmate - because she never did.**

**Rating: T**

**Warnings: Character death, and a scene with a not so chaste kiss (and a lot of angstiness)**

**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling, nothing belongs to me. I don't make any money out of this story.**

**.:.**

**Written for:**

**\- the So This Is Love Competition: the character given to me was Daphne Greengrass and the quote given to me was "Protect what matters with everything you have, or you'll have nothing, and deserve it."**

**\- the If You Dare Challenge (REVIVED!): Prompt 539 - Heart's Truth**

**\- the Alphabetti Spaghetti (on HSWW): letter S - Soulmate!AU**

**Word count (without the A/N): 2432 words**

* * *

_**Soulmates:**_** Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass**

Astoria's eighteenth birthday should be a happy thing, Daphne thought grimly. But she knew what would happen: the mark on her sister's wrist would tell her her soulmate, and that could have terrible consequences. She could still remember how horrified she had felt when she had seen the name on _her_ wrist, on the day of _her_ eighteenth birthday.

* * *

"Harry Potter!" Astoria exclaimed, holding her sister's wrist closer to her face. "Your soulmate is Harry Potter! _The_ Harry Potter!"

"You shouldn't be so happy about it, Astoria," she scolded. She took a deep breath to calm herself and then shook her head, apologizing. "It can't be… Potter, of all people! He's supposed to be our enemy, and –"

"No, he is supposed to be the Dark Lord's enemy. Draco's enemy, too. Not ours," her little sister rectified.

Daphne just frowned and thought about it for a minute, before she tugged her wrist out of Astoria's grasp. "I am friends with Draco, and he's Draco's enemy. He will never react well to me acting on it, and I don't want to lose him," she finally said.

Her little sister looked at her and laughed derisively.

"What is so funny?" Daphne asked, a little defensive.

"I didn't realize you could be so stubborn, Daph. It's your heart's truth, and you'll see you won't deny it for long."

Her heart's truth… She didn't think about her sister's words for a few months, but when Potter suddenly showed up at Hogwarts after a year, she reminded herself of those words.

* * *

Daphne looked at her little sister once more, her brow furrowing. She looked beautiful in her green dress (green like grass), but there was something like a shadow passing in her eyes every single time she looked at her.

She had to talk to her (finally, after so much time has passed since _everything_ happened). She had to tell her she didn't have to worry about her anymore… And she wished she could actually mean it.

* * *

They were once again being dragged down towards the dungeons, and it was all Parkinson's fault! Every chance she had of talking to Potter – to Harry – had just turned to dust, and she cursed her Slytherin comrade inwardly.

Wasn't she a Slytherin? she suddenly asked herself. And weren't Slytherins supposed to be cunning, and capable of everything to achieve their ends? She smiled slyly and the second she saw an escape, she took it, and climbed up the stairs. Her sister would be safer down there anyway, so she didn't even attempt to warn her.

The first person she saw when she came back into the Great Hall was Harry. She strode towards him (if she walked more slowly, she was sure she would walk out before she could even speak to him) and put a hand on his shoulder. He jumped, a little startled, and turned towards her. The second he noticed who she was, he frowned. She could easily guess his thoughts just by seeing his face – why was a Slytherin girl he had never really talked to coming to see him, when she was supposed to be _down there_ with the others?

"Pot – Harry, I need to talk to you for a second," she requested, not even caring about the scowls on Weasley and Granger's face. "Please." She wasn't used to say please, at least to someone she didn't know very well (if at all), and it left a bitter taste on her tongue.

He nodded, once, shortly, and followed her up the stairs, in a classroom where they would be relatively alone. She didn't want anyone to hear what she had to say.

She twirled around, several strands of light blonde hair escaping her bun, and she said, as coldly as she could (because he couldn't know she had missed him all year – why did she miss him anyway? It was just a mark on her wrist, and it shouldn't mean anything special to her.), "I need to show you something."

She noticed how his hand came closer to his wand, tucked in the pocket of his uniform, and when he said, "Go ahead, show me, Greengrass," her last name almost sounded like an insult. She took a deep breath and chose not to notice it (maybe he didn't know, maybe the mark hadn't appeared on his wrist, or maybe it wasn't even the same name).

She rolled her sleeve up and brandished her marked wrist. When he saw his name, his eyebrows raised and he quietly gasped. "This is my name," he stated, bewildered.

"Really, Potter? I didn't know you could actually read," she sneered, before she realized that she wasn't supposed to act like this. "Sorry, it's just – I don't know why it's there, and –"

At that, he cut her off and informed her, "That means we're supposed to be soulmates. I thought everyone knew it."

"I know that! But how can we be soulmates when we don't even know each other?" She was aware she probably sounded hysterical, but she didn't care. Right now, all she needed was an answer – an answer he couldn't give her.

"I didn't even know we were soulmates, Greengrass," he said bitterly, and she felt so nervous. Was she right? Was there _actually_ another name written on his wrist, then? Before she could embarrass herself any further, he continued, "I'm not eighteen yet."

A sigh of relief escaped her lips, and he smirked. He tried to hide it, of course, but she was particularly skilled at reading into people's expressions, and she scowled.

"Don't you dare laugh at me, Potter," she threatened, and when he held his hands up in a surrendering manner, she felt stupid because a smile was tugging at her lips. "This whole… situation is not funny," she continued with a little less conviction. "You're with the Weasley girl, and I'm probably going to be left alone, and –"

"I'm not with Ginny anymore," he interrupted her. "We broke up a year ago."

"I'm ready to bet the only reason you broke up with her, and you didn't make it up, is because of your absence this year," she told him in a defiant tone. "Am I right?"

He didn't deny it, and her eyes filled with tears, because this was it. There was a mark on her wrist with the name of her soulmate, and this very soulmate wasn't even destined to be hers!

She turned away and took a deep breath to calm herself, and then she walked around him and just as she was about to leave the classroom, he grabbed her shoulder and turned her around, and then –

His lips were on hers, almost hungry. She didn't want to respond to that kiss (it wasn't supposed to happen like this – every book said a first kiss with your soulmate was supposed to be tender and full of love, not of this… hungry passion) but she did, because suddenly, there was a fire in her belly. A fire that grew, and grew, and filled her entire body. It was almost like she could feel a bond creating itself between him and her, and it felt right, but it wasn't. And she couldn't control herself. His hands were on her hips, and hers were in his hair, and she pulled him desperately closer.

When finally, he stepped back a little, his hands leaving her side (they weren't supposed to leave her hips, they _belonged_ there now), she opened her eyes and she glared at him. How could he have done such a thing? They were at war, and they weren't even supposed to be together (yes, they were, if what she felt during that kiss was of any indication)!

"Why?" she asked, and her voice sounded just a little broken. "Why did you kiss me?"

"It was the only way to discover if you were my soulmate too, as I'm not eighteen yet," he answered in all honesty.

She paused, and then she asked, "And? Am I?"

He didn't answer right away, and when he did, he just asked her another question, "You felt it too, right?"

She nodded and readjusted her uniform, which was a little crumpled at some places. She didn't smile, she just looked at him straight in the eyes and then turned on her heels.

"Daphne?" he called her back, and she stopped (of course she stopped, it wasn't like she had any choice in the matter; there was this bond which called out to him now). "You won't fight with us, will you?"

She wanted to tell him that no, of course she wouldn't, because she couldn't, but she didn't. She surprised herself when she realized she was actually thinking about it. But there was Astoria, and she had to look after her.

"I can't," she finally whispered. "I have a sister, and I can't leave her alone."

She felt, more than she saw, him nod, and she left, her heart breaking into a million pieces. Now that he had kissed her, everything had changed, and she was almost entirely sure she would have preferred to go back to the way it was before.

* * *

"Astoria," she began once they were alone in her room, and her sister looked at her straight in the eyes. Something had changed in her, and Astoria wasn't the young and innocent girl she used to be anymore. "I need to tell you something."

"About _him_?" the younger girl asked, her voice a little strained.

Daphne nodded, once, and she continued, "First, you have to know… When the mark will appear on your wrist in a few hours… You will have to protect what matters with everything you have, or you'll have nothing, and deserve it." Her words might have been harsh, but her little sister needed to realize, and she needed to avoid the mistakes she had made, what seemed like a lifetime ago.

"What do you mean?" Astoria asked, frowning.

"I never told you the whole story. The story of how my mark disappeared." And she started retelling her story (the story of her last day as Daphne Greengrass as a whole and complete person).

* * *

She didn't leave Hogwarts. She didn't help either, because she had to look after Astoria. They both stayed in the dungeons, and a few times, when she heard young voices screaming above (the war, what it did to her comrades and her friends…), she wanted to go back up there and help them, but she never did.

Until she heard a voice (a cold, horrible voice) reverberating on the castle's walls, demanding the surrendering of Harry Potter. A few minutes later, she felt an immense sorrow flooding her, and it wasn't even hers.

"Astoria," she gasped. "I – I need to go, but you stay there, all right? You stay there!" She didn't wait for a response and left, sprinting up the stairs as fast as she could.

She almost ran into someone, and when she looked up, she saw Harry. Just the person she wanted to see.

"What happened?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"I have to go," he answered distractedly, already walking away.

"No, you can't go there," she gasped. There was something inside her that told her not to let him go, because if he did, he wouldn't come back. Ever.

"I have to, Daphne," he repeated, and he sounded so defeated that it scared her.

"What about us? And what about your friends?"

"You'll all go on. And maybe you'll fight with them once I'm gone. Maybe that will change your mind," he added, and anger surged up inside of her.

"Are you really making this about me?" she snarled. "It's about you! You will die if you go there, and we both know it!" He stayed silent, and she wanted to scream, but instead, she begged him for the second time in the evening, "Please, Harry, you can't go there. Not so soon after…"

She trailed off, and this time, she couldn't continue. There were tears in her eyes and she knew if she went on, she would start crying, and she couldn't cry over something that had barely happened.

He kissed her then, and this was so much better, in a way, that their first kiss. This one was much more tender (just like it was supposed to be), and the bond between them brought them impossibly closer. When he finally let her go, he rested his forehead against hers and whispered, "Stay here with your sister, Daphne. And don't do anything stupid."

* * *

"A few hours later, he was dead and the mark disappeared from my wrist," Daphne finished. She didn't tell her sister about the way it had felt. She had hunched over, and she had wanted to scream in pain, and she had wanted to cry, and instead, she had just straightened her back and held back her tears.

And instead of following his last wish, she had joined the Dark Lord's forces (because Astoria couldn't live on the run forever, and her parents would probably have been killed, and because of a lot of other reasons that she couldn't even admit herself – cowardice). She had never forgotten the look of disgust on the faces of all the brave students that stood up to Voldemort – that still stood up to Voldemort, for a few of them (too few).

"So when the name appears on your wrist, I want you to do what I didn't do," she told her sister, and her voice was raw with honesty. "You are older and more capable now, and braver than I will ever be, and no matter who your soulmate is, I want you to fight for him. You deserve to have that… bond with someone. It will be your heart's truth, and I don't want you to ever deny it, even for a single second."

Her sister just nodded, and when the name _Draco Malfoy_ appeared on her wrist a few hours later, Astoria couldn't help but sigh with relief. It would be a lot easier than it had been for Daphne.

When she saw a little glint of silver on her older sister's bare shoulder, she didn't even have to ask her what it was. She knew – Harry Potter's name. It was Daphne's last homage to her lost soulmate, and it was her own kind of bravery. Because Daphne would have to marry someone, someday, and it would be one of the Dark Lord's servant, and if he discovered the silver tattoo, she would die – and she knew it.

* * *

**I hope you liked this, and it wasn't too confusing between the past and the present! :)**


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